Gunmen shot dead two Jesuit priests and a man seeking sanctuary at their church in northern Mexico, an act the pope condemned on Wednesday.

The man who was seeking protection was later identified as a tour guide and was being pursued by a gang in Cerocahui, in Mexico's mountainous Chihuahua state.

The gunmen allegedly entered the church, killed the two priests and the pursued man, then placed the bodies in the back of a pickup truck before leaving the scene. 

Pope expresses 'pain and shock'

"I express my pain and shock over the killing in Mexico of two religious brothers of mine, Jesuits, and one lay person," Pope Francis said in his weekly address in Rome.

"I am close in prayer and affection to the Catholic community hit by this tragedy. Once more I repeat that violence does not resolve problems but increases episodes of suffering," he added.

Priests knew the gunmen and had attempted to intervene

Father Luis Gerardo Moro Madrid, head of the order in Mexico, denounced the killings in a statement, adding that they took place "in the context of the violence this country is experiencing."

Madrid also said the shooters left alive a third clergyman who ran into the church at the time of the shooting.

Father Jorge Atilano Gonzalez, who is also a Jesuit priest, told a local television station that the religious leaders knew the gunmen and had attempted to intervene. 

"He wanted to confess...what we believe is that he was in a state of alcoholism or addiction because of the reaction he had," said Gonzalez recounting the statement made by the surviving priest. 

Chihuahua state is a remote, mountainous region in northern Mexico and is an area that has frequently been plagued by gang-related violence. The state is a key transit route for drugs on their way to the United States. Rival trafficking gangs violently contest territory in the region.

Gangs and the religious order

Mexico's security secretary said Monday afternoon that the alleged assailants had already been identified while President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the "presence of organized crime" in Chihuahua was hitting the community hard after the murders of several Jesuit priests in recent years.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico also condemned the killings saying that the priests perform "important social and pastoral work" for indigenous people in the area. 

Religious leaders in Mexico, at times, act as mediators in gang-related disputes and defenders of their communities. They serve a vital role in regions with little government presence. 

Jesuit priests are required to accept orders to live anywhere they are dispatched to, regardless of extreme conditions.

An estimated 30 priests have been killed over the past decade in Mexico according to the Centro Catolico Multimedial Catholic organization.

asw/jsi (AFP, Reuters, EFE)